“A breakout?” I asked as I followed Moonlight through the tunnels. “I thought you were lying low.”

“I should rephrase that. What I meant to say is that everyone except you, me, and a few others, are lying low.”

He led me into a large room which was undoubtedly the meeting room, where a single young doe sat.

“Eve,” Moonlight addressed her. “Would you please gather the rest of the breakout crew?”

“We’re really doing it?” she asked in astonishment, briefly looking over at me. She ran out of the room without waiting for an answer.

Moonlight snatched some maps from a shelf and began laying them flat on the table. Soon after, Eve came in followed by two others.

“Are we really breaking ‘im out?” a strong brown buck asked.

Eve was already in her seat wiggling excitedly.

“I think it’s worth a shot now that we have Bender here!” Everyone looked at me.

“The unknown,” said a battle-marked tough-looking doe.

Moonlight nodded and motioned for everyone to sit down. Once we were seated he introduced me to “The breakout crew.”

“This is Luna,” he said, motioning to the tough-looking doe. “She's the head of the stealth team.” Luna nodded to me and a chill went down my spine, she was intimidating. “This,” Moonlight said, motioning to the big buck. “Is Theo. He’s the muscle of the group.” Theo nodded kindly. “And you’ve already met Eve.”

I looked to the doe who seemed much too young to be there, bouncing impatiently in her seat.

“Right,” Luna said, looking at me. “We are trying to break out a valuable asset and from what we’ve seen, you can help us get in.” She brought her finger down hard on a building layout. “This is where he’s being kept.”

I looked at the layout, spreading the paper between my hands.

“What are these?” I asked, pointing to several red Xs.

“Guards,” Theo replied.

I sighed heavily, looking at the many red Xs, then up at the expectant faces.

“I don’t think I can help you here.” I pushed the plans away from me.

“Bender,” Moonlight said. “You came here to do good.” I nodded. “Well, this is one of the best things you could do for us.”

It was the solemn look on his face, so unlike his usual carefree expression, that convinced me. I pulled the plans back and took a good look at them. Many hours and many questions went by. All of my ideas were shot down one by one.

“We only have one chance, there’s no room for luck,” Luna told me every time I suggested a plan even slightly relying on luck.

We talked well into the night and by the time Moonlight suggested we go to bed I was very dejected.

“Dontcha worry mate,” Theo reassured me. “We’ve been staring at that paper for days, it’s good t’ have a fresh mind take a look at it. No one was expectin’ you t’ figure it out right away.”

Eve, however, had a venomous look on her face.

Geeze, I thought. What is with her?

* * *

I awoke early the next morning and was met with a delicious breakfast and friendly chatter. I had completely forgotten that I was in First Warren. I was brought sharply back to reality when Theo came over and reminded me of the breakout plans.

“We’ll meetcha there whenever you feel up t’ it,” he said.

My mood quickly changed as the thoughts of letting everyone down settled over me. Even here, with people I barely knew, I felt the need to perform above and beyond. I knew that it was impossible this time though. I don’t know what they thought I could do. They obviously knew that I was keen at architecture, but I was no magician. Even without guards at every corner, the building was impossible to get into without being seen. But what if I was seen? What if I was supposed to be there? My eyes widened with shock at my discovery. I dropped my fork on my plate causing a loud clatter. Many heads turned to me but I didn’t care. I raced to the meeting room and threw the doors open.

“I’ve got it!” I announced. Everyone turned to me in surprise.

“What do ya mean?” Theo asked.

“I know how to get in.”

“Tell us then,” said Luna.

“One of us has to get thrown in.”

“We already discussed this,” she said, used to shutting down my ideas by now. “It’s top security. Even if we did something bad enough to get in there, you wouldn’t be able to try anything without getting caught.”

“Another one of us would be the guard, that way, we could get away with something.”

“We discussed that too. They know an intruder when they see one. We need this asset now, there’s no time to get a man on the inside that we can trust either.”

“They wouldn’t notice a fake guard if we had a big enough distraction though.”

“We also discussed that! Didn’t you listen to anything I’ve been saying, boy?! They would tighten up security if they got suspicious, we’ve seen it happen!”

“They wouldn’t if they were told not to.”

“What are you getting at?” Theo asked me, silencing Luna with a look.

“We create a distraction and fake orders for all the guards to leave their posts. During the chaos, we sneak in, disguised as a guard and prisoner.” I pushed the plans away from me. “We don’t need to sneak in without being seen, we just need to sneak out without being seen.”

“It’s not going to work.”

We all sat there for a moment, everyone thinking the plan over.

“It’s better than what we’ve already thought of,” Moonlight said. “But–”

“There’s no room for luck,” Luna interrupted.

“We would need a distraction like no other,” Moonlight finished.

The seconds ticked by.

“Victory Day.” We all turned to look at Eve. “Victory Day would be a big enough distraction. All the guards would be keen to stop, let’s say, a bunch of escaped younglings if they were told to. They wouldn’t question something like that.”

Theo looked solemn. “I don’ know. I don’ like the idea of using something so awful t’ our advantage.”

“Besides,” said Luna. “Victory Day is only a week away, that’s not enough time.”

“It’s the best chance we’ve got,” said Moonlight, a determined look in his eyes. “I don’t like using Victory Day either, Theo, but Eve’s right about it being the best distraction. And sure, it’s not a lot of time, but if we’re doing it on Victory Day then we can’t wait until next year.”

“Fine,” said Luna. “Let’s say that we get in. How then, are we getting out? They’ll realize something is up pretty quickly.”

I pointed to a spot on the plans that was often brought up. It was a weak point in the structure, theoretically, one good blow would create an entryway or, in this case, an exit. It was often pushed aside as an idea, however, because our “one good blow” would be explosives which would attract too much attention.

“The noise won’t matter at this point, we’ll already be on our way by the time they realize what’s happening,” I said, smiling at my perfect plan.

Moonlight patted me on the shoulder, smiling wide. “I knew you would come up with the answer, Bender. Right, let’s get to work.”

The energy in the room lifted greatly, everyone was happy except for Luna.

“It’s a good plan but it won’t be good enough,” she said before leaving.

“Dontcha worry ‘bout her,” Theo said. “That old grump wouldn’t ‘ave liked any plan that wasn’t her own.”

I wasn’t worried about what Luna thought of the plan, but I was worried about it going wrong, about letting everyone down. You made it this far, I reassured myself. You came up with the plan, that’s all they wanted from you.

* * *

The entire week we planned every detail of the breakout and came up with backup plans for our backup plans. We double and triple-checked everything right up until Victory Day and it was becoming very clear to me how important this mission was. Moonlight addressed the room of rabbits before our departure.

“Friends, today is Victory Day.” Many boos and angry words came from the crowd. “Indeed, it is a day I wish to erase from our world, but alas, it can not be done. Instead, we shall use this day to strike a blow against Morbin and take back some of what is rightfully ours!” Many cheers and whoops followed this before Moonlight raised his hands to quiet the crowd. “My friends, I, along with many of our group, will embark on a dangerous mission. I ask you to be ready, those of you waiting here, to take in the injured when we return.” Every face became serious and there were a few solemn nods. “If today does not end well, I ask you to continue what has been started here. But it has not gone wrong yet my friends! There is still hope! I ask you to drink and smile, do not wait anxiously for our return, instead, celebrate what we are doing here in the Citadel of Dreams!”

“The Citadel of Dreams!” the crowd chanted back.

“There is still hope,” I repeated to myself.

I, along with the others, left the busy room and out into First Warren.

Any guesses on who they’re breaking out 🤔?